Biology

Advances in brain-computer interface technology are impressive, but we’re not close to anything resembling mind control.

Transcription factors that act throughout the genome can arise from mashups of transposable elements inserted into established genes.

New work shows that histones, long treated as boring spools for DNA, sit at the center of the origin story of eukaryotes and continue to play important roles in evolution and disease.

Glycans, the complex sugars that stud cellular surfaces, are like a language that life uses to mediate vital interactions. Researchers are learning how to read their meaning.

A newfound hub of immune system activity at the back of the brain solves a century-old puzzle.

Anesthesia is very different from sleep — which is why it offers unique opportunities for studying the human brain, says the physician-researcher and statistician Emery Brown.

The bizarre genome of the world’s most mysterious flowering plants shows how far parasites will go in stealing, deleting and duplicating DNA.

Some populations of neurons simultaneously process sensations and memories. New work shows how the brain rotates those representations to prevent interference.

Quantitative models built by the mathematical biologist Trachette Jackson can make cancer therapies safer and more effective.